My first book was the result of years of graduate work and was born of my dissertation. It had gone through multiple iterations and critiques from my adviser and dissertation committee. In the end, I felt as though the whole project was out of my hands, and I was simply responding to the demands of others. Of course, that is the point — as a graduate student, you are being shaped to join the ranks of academics who speak the same (metaphoric) language and share similar expectations for academic work.

As the new year begins I feel mostly how arbitrary the turning of the year is. The new school year began in August (September for some of you, including both my kids); the western Christian liturgical year, as I noted recently, began in November, and the Lunar New Year won’t come around until later this month.

Despite a new bill headed for parliament, the regulatory framework for permitting overseas institutions to operate in India seems as murky as ever. Observers, inside and out of India, will watch with interest the next steps of this seemingly unending an confusing saga.